Adrian Bayley was on parole for raping five prostitutes at time of Jill Meagher murder

Adrian Bayley, who pleaded guilty to raping and murdering Jill Meagher, was on parole for raping five prostitutes.
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Adrian Bayley, the Australian bodybuilder who pleaded guilty to raping and murdering Irish journalist Jill Meagher, was at the time on parole for raping five prostitutes.

Bayley, 41, pleaded guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to killing the 29-year-old Irish expat from Drogheda, Co. Louth, as she walked home from a bar in the inner-north suburb of Brunswick last September. He now potentially faces life in prison.

Meagher's mother-in-law told the Daily Mail that Bayley should not have had the chance to brutally rape and murder Jill at all because he was out on parole for the rape of five prostitutes.

"He [Bayley] was out on parole – and shouldn’t have been out on the streets at all. It was such an appalling and such a random thing," said Joan Meagher, the mother of Jill's husband Tom.

"Jill just happened to be out there. I hope that he is never left in a position to do this to anyone else.

"He has ruined so many lives. He deserves to get life because of his previous record and because he was on parole."

Joan said the family was shocked when Bayley initially pleaded not guilty to the charges last month. After his not-guilty plea was entered, Tom Meagher walked out of the courtroom.

"Everyone was so shocked when Bayley had pleaded not guilty and I think that’s why Tom walked out of court," she said. "They [the prosecution] had this massive file on him and he had such a huge criminal background."

Bayley served his first sentence for rape in the early 1990s and was released from jail in 1993 after serving three years.

He was later convicted in 2002 for the rape of five prostitutes. He was sentenced to 11 years in jail but was released after serving only eight years. Bayley and was due to remain on parole until March 2013.

Had Bayley served his full sentence, he would not have been on the streets the night that JIll Meagher was murdered.

In the police transcripts of an interview with Bayley on September 27 of last year, he is quoted as saying: ‘I strangled her. I hope they bring back the death penalty before I get sentenced.

"I should be in jail anyway, you know. I shouldn’t have been let out last time – simple. And I say that in the hope someone hears that and they don’t ever let me out again. How many chances does a person need?

Joan Meagher said the families are still trying to come to terms with the loss of Jill.

‘We remember Jill as such a lovely little girl. Everyone adored her. It really is an awful loss. We’ll never get over it. But imagine how hard it is for her lovely family. She’s their child and they have had such an awful journey.’

Loretta O'Neill, the 41-year-ol former girlfriend of Adrian Bayley, has said that he sexually assaulted her and then manipulated her into believing that she loved him.

"When I met Adrian, he said he was called Bayley and that he had Irish family. He said he really liked the fact I had Irish origins. He used to call me his “little Irish girl”. He really seemed to have a thing for Irish women and now I just feel sick to the stomach. He went on about Ireland a lot and how he wanted to visit," said O'Neill, a mother of two who dated Bayley for around six months after he claimed to have split from girlfirnd Rameeza Ali.

O'Neill said that one night in September 2011, 12 months before Jill Meagher was murdered, Bayley "forced himself" on her in what she described as a "horrifying attack."

She said she was getting ready for bed and Bayley was still in her apartment, while a male friend was in the other room. She thought they were about to leave.

"I’d been dating Adrian for quite a while but I wanted to wait until I really trusted him before I became intimate with him," said O'Neill.

She said she put her pajamas on and was going to bed but Bayley came into her bedroom. She later found out the friend who was there had fallen asleep on her sofa in the living room.

"I was sitting on the bed and he came over to me, sat with me, then started tickling me," she said.

"He pulled my pyjama pants down and I knew he wanted to have sex.

"I told him, 'Adrian, no, no, no,' but he carried on tickling me and told me, 'I’m going to do it to you, I’m going to do it anyway.' I kept saying, 'Get off Adrian, no,' but he didn’t listen to me. He just went ahead and had sex with me when I didn’t want to. I just lay there. It was horrifying. I wanted to scream out but I knew his friend would come in to help me. He was my friend too, but he was a smaller man than Adrian and I knew Adrian would kill him. I just gave up and let him do that to me because I was afraid."

O’Neill said she feels ‘sickened’ that she continued to date Bayley for months afterwards but he "got into my mind."

"I don’t know why I didn’t leave him at that point," she said.

"I wanted to see him and I knew it was wrong but he manipulated me I guess. I felt like I really loved Adrian. He really had a hold on me.

"He dressed so well, talked with manners and he always had his hair in a smart style. I had no idea of what he had really been in prison for, I feel sick."

Meanwhile, Bayley's former best friend, 27-year-old Dan Spana, has labeled him a "monster" who deserves to "suffer in prison."

"A death sentence is too easy for him. I want him to suffer with life in prison for what he did to that poor woman.

"If anyone met Adrian before they knew this, what he had done – they would have thought him a nice guy. He really deceived everyone,’ said Mr Spana.

"He is evil – sick in the head. He was so strong. He liked to fight in the ring and keeping fit and strength was a high priority to him. He didn’t mind having a fight, he enjoyed it. How could that poor woman have ever stood a chance?

"It’s sick. I don’t know how someone could do that to a woman. He was so kind to me and I never even had the slightest clue what he was capable of."